Fast Facts
- Named for: It’s a long story, but probably Greek, γεωργός Georg, tiller of land, from Gaia + ergos. Although it could be Persian, Gurj; or gurgan, land of the wolves. The Georgians call their country Sakartvelo (საქართველო; ‘land of Kartvelians’).
- Long/Lat: 41.4 N/44.4 E , 6900 mi or 14 hours West of Castro Valley
- Population: 3.7 million, 56x Castro Valleys
- Size: 27,000 sq mi, 1588 CVs
- Avg temp in April: 65 F/20 C (similar to CV)
- Median household income: $8500 annual
- Ethnicity: 87% Georgians, rest Armenian, Azerbaijani, others nearby
- Main industries: Mining, transport, ancient wineries
The ancient Greeks called it Colchis (Κολχίς) which was their version of what they thought people said, now Anglicized. They told a famous ancient story about a golden ram, whose pelt hung on a tree guarded by a dragon. The mythical explorer Jason sailed the Argo across the Black Sea and, after seducing the king’s daughter, took the golden fleece and daughter back home. Later, he cheated on her, and Medea was not pleased. She ended up poisoning the paramour and killing the children.
The Republic of Georgia today stretches from the eastern side of the Black Sea almost across to the Caspian, bordered on the southeast by Azerbaijan. Russia still occupies pieces of it, having claimed that these regions are “independent,” i.e., belong to Putin in a 2008 incursion, practically overnight. Georgia’s separation from the Soviet Union in 1990 and transition to parliamentary democracy has as a whole, to put it mildly, been problematic. We know the feeling.
But it’s no surprise that Georgia might be the site of ancient legends. Its first settlers were tribes of Homo erectus, 1.8 million years ago, who went north from Africa and the Fertile Crescent to settle in the land’s fertile valleys, gentle slopes, and temperate climate. The country’s latitude is roughly the same as Bordeaux, hence, eight thousand years ago, it was a site of the first known wine-making. Ancient Georgians filled jugs known as kvevris, buried in the cool ground, sometimes for decades.
The people of the region called themselves perhaps Koltis or Kartvelis. The Greeks turned that into Colchis, and at some point, during multiple historical periods of consolidation and fragmentation, the place was called Georgia. This could refer to a Persian term, Gurj, or a local term gargan–land of the wolves. Might be Greek. By the 1320s, at least one mapmaker labeled it as G-E-O-R-G-I-A. The Georgians today call their country the Kartveli and their country Sakartvelo. They have a unique language and their own distinct alphabet.
Several accounts suggest the country was named for St. George, a Roman soldier martyred after converting to Christianity. Yet THAT George seemed to be stationed or born either near Israel or Egypt, so the story isn’t credible. There is a similarity in the flag. The Georgian flag today uses the Jerusalem flag, which has the red cross on a white background (the “George flag”), surrounded by the four crosses of the gospel, four corners of the earth, what have you. Places named Georgia seemed to attract flag-based controversies.
The region fell under Byzantine rule, from Constantinople after Rome’s influence evaporated, and was heavily Christian in the Early Middle Ages. It was beset in the south by the rise of Islam, by Persians and Seljuk Turks, two tides of Muslims nibbling at its southern borders. The Georgian Golden Age occurred under the great “king” Tamar whose 29-year reign expanded the borders, consolidated the locals, fought off a coup, and supported art and culture.
Tamars image is scratched on to the walls of monasteries, engraved in books, and written about in medieval poetry. Because Tamar was a woman, though she adopted the masculine title “King of Kings.”
By shedding tears of blood we praise Queen T’hamara,
from The Knight in the Panther’s Skin
Whose praises I, not ill-chosen, have told forth.
For ink I have used a lake of jet, and for pen a pliant crystal.
Whoever hears, a jagged spear will pierce his heart!
Georgia in 1204 had an elite military, and Tamar I improved it further. Nearby Constantinople had been besieged by Venice, so while she beat back the Turks in the South, she also expanded west and north, holding most of the region between the seas by the end of her reign. It was the largest territory in Georgia’s 8000 year existence. Within 20 years after her death, however, the land was taken by Mongols and re-absorbed into their Empire and region they called Il-Khanate.
But before then, she had built dozens of monasteries and Christian shrines and crushed several rebellions–including two by her first husband, Yuri. She accused him of drunkenness and sodomy and had him exiled, to Constantinople, right before the Crusaders sacked the place.
He should have read his mythology; don’t mess around with the women from Colchis.